I remember meeting several members of this church on the streets of Liverpool, England, in the early to mid-1990s. I was part of an Elim Pentecostal Church at the time, and we were evangelizing on the streets ourselves. The group seemed to have made a coordinated effort to turn up on that particular day to challenge us and proselytize among the same crowd. I believe the name of the church they gave was the Everton Revival Centre.

Their main message was that you couldn’t know you were born again unless you spoke in tongues. They used John 3 quite a bit as their proof text, in particular “You hear its sound” (Jn 3:8) to prove that the evidence of rebirth was a “sound” (ie, tongues).

Thanks. I’ll follow up their teaching on John 3:8. I’ll also try to find out if there’s any way of knowing their numbers worldwide. I’ve headd some disturbing reports about the destruction they appear to be weaking.

Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work.